Princess Marie officially opens the Better Food for More People – World Food Summit 2018

This is the third edition of the two-day Summit and the second with Princess Marie as Patron. The summit is hosted by the Ministry of Environment and Food of Denmark. The ‘Better Food for More People’ movement was combined with the World Food Summit.

More about the summit from the Ministry of Environment and Food: “The purpose of the global movement “Better Food for More People” and the annual World Food Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark is to unleash the full potential of gastronomy in order to create worldwide solid solutions that ensure better food for more people. The urban population of the world has grown rapidly from 746 million in 1950 to 3.9 billion in 2014 and is expected to surpass 6 billion by 2045. The amount of information about food is huge and difficult to get right, 1 in 10 people in the world fall ill after eating contaminated food, more than 244 million people lived outside their country of origin and more than 40 % of food waste in industrialized countries occurs at retail and consumer levels. “

“The need for strong solutions across the world is calling for action among the world’s politicians, decision makers, experts, professionals, chefs, scientist and CEO’s. Better Food for More People and the annual World Food Summit in Copenhagen is framing that action to evolve and take place. Together with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals which involves all nations, the aim is to push forward the agenda of sustainable development within the production and consumption of food and essentially healthy lives in the global society. “

Welcome to the 3rd edition of The World Food Summit – Better Food for More People.

It is a pleasure to be here, and it is a pleasure for me to see people from all around the world gathered here today.

It is a joyful occasion with the focus on a subject that is very dear to me: Food. But it is also a serious occasion. Because when it comes to both food consumption and production, we are facing enormous global challenges that call for global solutions.

Today, more than 800 million people live in hunger, while more than 2 billion people are overweight or obese.

This truly is the paradox of our time.

But our food is not only unequally distributed…

Every year, almost one-third of all food produced is either lost or wasted, and we have to stop that as well. Especially, since we live on a globe with limited resources.

As patron of this summit, I urge that we use this Summit to work together to address the global food challenges.

But first and foremost, every one of us must start by looking at our everyday lives and surroundings. We all have to be role models for our younger generation.

In my house, every now and then my children have to empty the fridge before buying new food. It means that I sometimes have to be a strict and unpopular parent – and I believe the best parents are!

We have to educate all our children to eat and consume food with modesty because science shows that it is during childhood that every person’s health and food habits are formed for the rest of their life.

We can all do a difference if we have the right tools, the knowledge, and the skills.

Therefore, we must work to ensure that all children are given the possibility to live a life with a healthy diet, with the ability to cook for themselves and the knowledge of the globes limitations.

I know that from where we stand today, this dream sounds less realistic than Denmark winning the World Cup in soccer. But nevertheless, it should be our aim.

I would like to end by thanking you all for coming here today.

By working together, we can create a joint movement and hopefully a sustainable world for the sake of our children.

After the opening ceremony, Princess Marie and the Minister of Food and Environment Jacob Ellemann-Jensen met students from the European School in Copenhagen and they ate the food homemade by the students. Afterward, Princess Marie and Jacob Ellemann-Jensen went back to the main room to take part in the next events of the summit.

Princess Marie wore a fully recycled outfit today. She wore her Giorgio Armani black blazer from 2015 (no stock photo but it has the name of the brand on the button) with her DKNY white wrap printed dress.